If you've played the first game then you'll know how vital and integral a part of the game it is to upgrade your own personal bike (successful racing and Gran Turismo-style tests reward you with attribute points that you can distribute to improve your bike's performance however you see fit), and Moto GP URT2 is just as focused on this, it's impossible to compete at the higher difficulty settings (Champion & Legend) without a well-tweaked bike. The difficulty of these tests seems to vary hugely, some you'll pass first go and others will drive you round the bend with their seemingly impossible time limits. You simply have to come back to some of them when your bike is improved. This time around there are fewer tests in the main section, but 'challenges' are embedded within each racing venue - and the game now has all 16 events from this year's championship as well. You can of course play as Rossi, Biaggi or whoever, but only when you've unlocked them, and only in the arcade modes. You also get 1000cc 4-Stroke bikes and believably different handling characteristics.

   

Options look like this: Single Player (Quick Race, Career Mode, Stunt Mode and Time Trials. Stunt Mode), Multiplayer (Xbox Live, system link and split screen), Settings and Extras (replays, unlockable stuff (those nice but pointless optional graphic modes are back), Videos (intros and lengthy highlights from last year's races) and Credits (the most bizarre credits video ever - but at least we know what happened to Brighton pier now).

As soon as you get racing it would appear that things look a little better here and there; the bikes have considerably more detail (especially yours, thanks in no small amount to the excellent new paintjobs and decal editor mode). The scenery looks a little better and there's more trackside detail. The crash animations are improved with a better camera and some well motion captured rolls and flips from the riders. The rain, smoke and dust effects are even better, but the replays still have an inexplicably inconsistent frame rate. There are more playable views (including a better onboard one), but they're all spoiled for me personally by a completely over-the-top speed blur effect when you hit about 120mph.

The superb feel of shifting the rider's weight and control is still there (put simply: it just feels so right using the triggers to control the brakes that no other bike game comes close). Sadly it soon becomes apparent that nutty AI riders that spoiled the first game are still present and correct, and will still knock you off at the most annoying moments. Their behaviour is stupidly inconsistent - sometimes they'll visibly slow to avoid an accident, and other times you'll get knocked off when leading a race, only to get back on and get hit by the next group of chasing riders - it's infuriating and disappointing that a game of such high quality in most areas is flawed with such dumb AI (but it never did the Gran Turismos any harm). The problem here is that to be competitive online (and at Legend level offline), you'll need a virtually maxed-out bike, and the structure of the game means that the only way to do this is to pass all the tests and challenges, and win increasingly difficult championships with increasingly ruthless (read: faster but still dumb) AI opponents.

   

Climax needed to sort the problem of the many possible short cuts, and have done by blocking off most possible routes with barriers or by making anything that isn't tarmac cause drag on the bike that you wouldn't believe - most grass stops your bike faster than an aircraft carrier landing. This of course works, and solves the problems of online (and splitscreen cheats) but with a time penalties as well in some race modes, it's been done in a heavy handed, and unrealistic way.

The ever-increasing difficulty and the fundamental need for a good bike simply means that Moto GP URT 2 demands such patience and dedication that few gamers (or reviewers) will have the time or temperament to play the game as much as Climax and THQ would have liked or to get sufficient rewards for their efforts. The game seems to target the hardcore Xbox Live gamer, and forget about the ordinary Joe - leaving him flapping around in championships that are either too easy or too frustrating, with a bike that's adequate for Pro level, but not good enough for the top championships or to compete against most other riders on Xbox Live. If you've got Xbox Live and a lot of time (and patience) then this game is undoubtedly for you - given loads of practice it really is a superb racer. If not, then you simply have a great looking (and handling) bike racer with some annoying flaws - but then, there's always the excellent splitscreen mode to beat your mates on…